Students and staff from across the School and University tuned in for the 2021 Virtual Guild Awards to see who would be crowned this year’s winners at a time that has seen groups and individuals pull out all the stops to support others and be a positive voice for change.
It was thrilling to see so many nominations from the School of Medicine across the categories, which included Fundraiser of the Year, Sustainability Champion and Course Rep of the Year.
The Palliative Medical Society was up for New Society of the Year, SNOGS (Student Neonatal Obstetrics and Gynaecology Society) and BME Medics Society were up for Student Changemaker of the Year, and SNOGS and Artefacts - Liverpool Medical School Performing Arts Society were in the running for Fundraiser of the Year.
When it came to the Society of the Year, there was no shortage of medical representation, with SNOGS, BME Medics, Liverpool Oncology Society and Liverpool Ophthalmology Society all on the list.
On the night, our student doctors and societies scooped awards in 4 high-profile categories. Here they share what winning a Guild Award means to them.
SNOGS Committee 2020-21
The Biggest Impact on the City of Liverpool Award
Winner: SNOGS
SNOGS (Student Neonatal Obstetrics and Gynaecology Society) is one of the most active Societies at the School of Medicine and works to engage University and younger students, as well as the wider community, in women’s health topics. SNOGS President 20/21 Rebecca Nagar shares more about their initiatives this year that ultimately secured them this prize.
“We are absolutely delighted to have won 'The Biggest Impact on the City of Liverpool' Award! This year we have tried to make the most of the current situation by putting on lots of virtual events! We know it has been a tough year for our local charities, WHISC, SAVERA and Liverpool Women’s Hospital Charity, and so we have tried to fundraise as much as we could through events such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) awareness with SAVERA and Merseyside Police, our Annual Charity Conference 'I'm Every Woman' which featured many local speakers, as well as OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) Practice and Revision Day.
The Guild of Students announce SNOGs as winners
We have also hosted a wide range of academic sessions for student doctors and other healthcare professionals, not just in Liverpool but across the UK and even globally. We loved collaborating with The Liverpool Medical Students' Society (LMSS) and many other Liverpool societies for the LGBT+ conference and we also collaborated with Liverpool Paediatric Society for a talk on Contraception and safeguarding in young people.
Through SNOGS in Schools we have still been able to deliver our teaching sessions on Contraception and body image to local schools which we have had amazing feedback from!
We would like to thank everyone who has supported us this year by donating to our charities, speaking at or attending our events.
We would also like to thank our sponsors, Wesleyan and MDU. We wish all the best to the new committee for next academic year.”
Artefacts Dance Director Olivia Olujohungbe
Guild Values Award
Winner: Olivia Olujohungbe, Dance Director for Artefacts - Liverpool Medical School Performing Arts Society
Final-year Student Doctor Olivia Olujohungbe has put many a smile on the faces of students and staff this year organising spectacular performances including a Virtual Variety Show and Online Carol Concert. These show-stopping events have brought people together and lifted the spirits in a testing year, not to mention raised bags of money for charity.
“Directing Artefacts onto a virtual platform this year has been a real test of confidence at times, but I feel so proud of everything we have all achieved this year, raising over £3000 for local charities and keeping up the normal calendar of activities (with some new additions!) as a nice creative outlet in a difficult year.
Olivia is announced as winner of the Guild Values Award
There is so much more I could say about the highs and lows - and endless hours of video editing - but I just wanted to end with gratitude instead: to Professor Scott and all of the School of Medicine staff for being so supportive (the kind emails really helped!).
To the committee for the pep talks, to my housemates for patiently listening to hours of dancing, to everyone who logged onto Zoom during lockdown to dance around their bedrooms, to the First Years for being so enthusiastic, and most importantly, to Will and Ioan (Music Director Will Bedson and Choir Master Ioan Wardhaugh).
They are two of the kindest and most hard-working people you could hope to meet, and I just wanted to thank them one last time for being so wonderful."
I will miss them, everyone in Artefacts and being part of the School community very dearly when I leave this year.
BME Medics Committee 2020-21
Society of the Year Award
Winner: BME Medics Society
BME Medics was formed in 2018 with the aim of uniting students of Black and Ethnic Minority Groups in the medical field. As Black and Minority Ethnicities are underrepresented in the NHS, their goal is to create a community in which to share experiences and learn together.
Our main goals this year were to raise awareness of racial health inequalities, to actively get involved in reducing them, and most importantly, to help our students through a difficult year.
"We did this through a series of events, including our Being Black in the NHS which showcased the experience of Black healthcare professionals in the NHS), and through our participation in a LGBTQ+ Conference panel.
BME Medics are announced as winners
We also led an Ethnic Minorities in Management Positions panel in collaboration with Liverpool Medical Management Society), as well as hosted a talk with Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu on diseases disproportionately affecting BAME patients, in collaboration with Medics Against Discrimination Society.
It has been a challenging year for all of us and seeing our efforts being appreciated by our members and others has been a real rewarding experience. This has no doubt given us reinforcement in determination and motivation to carry on doing what we are doing next year!”
Year 2 Course Rep Siona Mitra
Course Rep of the Year Award
Winner: Siona Mitra
Student Doctor Siona Mitra is an international student in her second year at the School of Medicine. Originally from Singapore, she has actually spent the last 13 months studying from there, after returning from the UK during the first lockdown.
Siona became Course Rep for Year 2 this year and has carried out her responsibilities, as well as her studies, long distance. She shares some of her key successes and how they contributed to her win at the Awards.
Siona is announced as Course Rep of the Year
"Winning the course rep of the year award has been such an honour and I couldn't be prouder of my achievement. Being away for the start of the year, it's hard to feel like you're a university student when you live at home in another country, it often felt like an extended holiday! It could be tricky to communicate and plan meeting times as I was essentially unavailable after 4 pm UK time (11 pm my time).
Thankfully due to everything else being online it became easier for me to collect feedback and speak to my colleagues about their experience. Later on, I ended up completely changing my sleep schedule, sleeping at 4 am and waking up at 12 pm.
I think I won because I have been a course rep fully online and was able to reach out to many people formally and informally to understand their experience this year.
One of my biggest achievements was securing refunds for test kits for international students returning to the UK. This was very ambitious on my end! The pandemic has been a difficult time for everyone financially, including international students. Most of us had multiple flights cancelled and had to pay large sums of money to return to the UK and cover testing kits. After liaising with other course reps, the School of Medicine and University, I was able to get this extra cost refunded. I see this as a huge win for myself as I handled this single-handedly!
I would like to give a huge thanks to Year Lead Dr Emma Beddoes for being a huge support to me this year. Winning the course rep of the year award truly made me feel like all the nights I spent trying to organize people's feedback halfway across the world has truly paid off.”
Congratulations to the winners and all the nominees this year! You have done the School proud and set the bar high for next year’s round of Guild Award hopefuls.
Discover More
- Take a look at the full list of nominees on the Guild Awards webpage.
- Browse the wide range of Medical Societies registered with Liverpool Guild of Students.
- Interested in becoming a course rep for the next academic year? Go to our Student Representatives page and the Course Reps page on the Guild website.